Posts tagged Texas Education Agency

Class size is an ongoing challenge for school districts around the country. The New York Times reports that though the recession has ended, the impact of budget and staff cuts is still being felt in the classroom. Many districts have had to increase their student-t0-teacher ratio.

In North Texas, hundreds of elementary schools were granted waivers from the state, The Dallas Morning News reported earlier this year. Dallas ISD applied for more than 200 waivers from the 22 students-per-classroom state cap. Suburban districts like Plano and Richardson ISDs also sought waivers.

How are teachers and students adapting? Do more kids equal more distractions? Does it affect teaching and learning? Chime in below.

The number of first-year teachers hired in Texas public schools has dropped significantly, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.

The paper looked at data from the Texas Education Agency, which shows that fewer than 15,000 first-year teachers were hired during the 2011-12 school year, far less than the 25,000 teachers hired in 2008. Last year was also the first year in recent history in which public schools lost more teachers than they hired.

A number of reasons contributed to the loss, including the recession and cuts to education funding, the paper reports.

A group of parents led by former State Rep. Allen Vaught is pushing for its own school district in the White Rock area. He’s created a Facebook page in support of the effort and plans to hold a meeting to discuss the idea.

A group of parents who live around White Rock Lake in East Dallas wants to split from the Dallas Independent School District. That’s right, the group wants to secede and create a new school district it’s calling White Rock ISD. But the hurdles are high.

The state auditor’s office has released a report that basically says the Texas Education Agency isn’t doing its job to uncover cheating scandals.

The report, done at the request of Education Commissioner Michael Williams, says TEA “failed” to do its due diligence when it looked into cheating allegations in the El Paso Independent School District.